Continuity and Change in Turkish Politics: Economic and Behavioural Explanations of Democratic Backsliding

This book features leading scholars examining the dynamics of Turkish politics through alternative themes, including political economy and behavior. It provides a comprehensive understanding of continuity and change within Turkey’s political system, utilizing rigorous empirical work and data.

This book delves into the complexities of Turkish politics, the political economy of democratic backsliding, economic voting trends, political competition and change, populism, ideology, candidate nomination, and the impact of the international political economy on Turkey. While doing so, it focuses on the 2023 elections in Turkey. The chapters in this edited volume analyze these themes, offering fresh insights into systemic party competition, voting behavior, and the political economy of Turkey. This timely publication promises to be an essential resource for understanding recent shifts in Turkish politics and will benefit students, researchers and scholars interested in Politics, Political Economy, and Turkish Studies.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies.

Mustafa Aydın is Professor of International Relations at Kadir Has University (Istanbul), the President of the International Relations Council of Turkey, and the Coordinator of the Global Academy. He is a member of the European Leadership Network, the Greek Turkish Forum, and the European Academy of Art and Sciences. His areas of interest include international politics, foreign policy analysis, geopolitics of Eurasia, and Turkish politics and foreign policy.

Kerem Yıldırım is currently an assistant professor of political science at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey. He received his PhD from Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2016. He previously taught at Kadir Has and Sabancı Universities in Istanbul. He was a postdoctoral associate in 2019– 2021 at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA. His research interests include party– voter linkages, accountability, party competition, and political communication. His publications appeared in journals such as Political Communication, Political Behavior, Democratization, International Journal of Press/ Politics, Turkish Studies, South European Society and Politics, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. He worked on issues such as varieties of political linkages, clientelism, political competition, and Turkish politics.